If you navigate to it through Word's Open dialog, you can double-click on it
to open it. But there is no way to "open" it from the New dialog (which is
where one most easily finds templates), and in (My) Computer or Windows
Explorer, the default function (which will be performed if you double-click
on it) is New, but you can right-click and choose Open instead. Word 2003
doesn't by default have the Templates folder on the Places Bar, but it is
one of the first folders I add.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
...
I don't remember how Word2003 does it, but you need to open the
template by using the menu commands after opening Word, rather than by
double-clicking on the filename as you'd usually do to open an
existing document that you want to go back to and work on some more.

On Mar 19, 12:35 pm, K wrote:
Thanks Peter. Appreciate your taking time to consider and respond to my
post.
My compuliteracy is really quite low. When you say "Open the template
within
Word, not by clicking on it " I have no idea what you are trynig to tell
me.
I have the ability to find the templates in Word, the canned templates as
well as the ones I've created and stored, but I have to click on them to
open
them. But thanks anyway. K.



"Peter T. Daniels" wrote:
Are you on some sort of corporate network that prevents you from
making permanent changes?

If not, you can make your changes in the normal.dot template and all
new documents will show them. (Open the template within Word, not by
clicking on it -- that would just get you a new document based on the
template.) In case Word doesn't think formatting changes are "real"
changes, type a character in the body of the template and delete it,
and then save it when you close.

On Mar 17, 11:57 am, K wrote:
Everytime I open Word 2003 the AutoFormat settings I set last time
have
changed back. Everytime I set up a new docu I uncheck ordinals and
fractions
in the AutoFormat tab, Capital first letter of sentences and cells in
the
AutoCorrect tab, and Fractions and Ordinals in the AutoFormat as you
type
tab. While this is every time I open Word, if I open a second docu
while the
first is still open, the settings in the new docu are the same as I
reset for
the first, but once I closed Word all settings revert. Indent and
spacing
also changes at some time during typing too and I have to go back and
re
'zero' everything. Typestyles also change from ariel 14 to Times New
Roman
10, except the first line and links. Is it possible to save my
preferances so
I don't have to make all these changes everytime I open Word? All
ideas,
suggestions, and comments about this issue will be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks, K.